8/19/2023 0 Comments Pagan saturnalia![]() It was in his Histriomastix (1632) – a repetitive thousand-page diatribe primarily directed against public theatres and female actors – that Prynne warmed to the subject. ![]() William Prynne (Wenceslaus Hollar, mid-17th century) From long before the civil wars a body of opinion had wished to strip away the vestiges of pagan rituals and put Christ back into Christmas, but Prynne collated others’ arguments and then put his own inimitable stamp on the material. He too did not invent the cancellation script. A man whose substantial contribution to the House of Commons belied the brevity of his time as an MP, and whose voluminous publications were second to none in the period, he was the epitome of persecuted turned persecutor, and a thorn in the side of royal and parliamentarian governments alike. So if Cromwell was not Scrooge, who was? Step forward one candidate for the role – lawyer, controversialist and martyr William Prynne. ![]() Legislation dates from the mid-1640s, before he attained political power. Contrary to what is often asserted, Oliver Cromwell was neither the originator nor even, particularly, the encourager of repression. But, as has appeared in previous blogs, in the mid-seventeenth century measures forbidding traditional seasonal festivities were more contested and less effective than often supposed. Indeed it surfaced in the House of Commons recently in debate over what kind of celebration might be prudent or possible in this extraordinary year. The idea that ‘the puritans cancelled Christmas’ has widespread acceptance. With the government currently recommending scaled-back Christmas celebrations, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Vivienne Larminie, assistant editor of our Commons 1640-60 project, considers a man who advocated scrapping Yuletide festivities for a quite different reason…
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